A Canadian Court Might Jail Woman for Giving Pigs Water

Industrialized farming operations are extremely sensitive to the danger that the way they treat animals will be exposed to the public, since quite often the animals are treat inhumanely—sometimes very inhumanely. In the US, agribusiness has worked at the state level to make it illegal to reveal anything about how they treat animals: no videos, for example, and not even published criticism. This is an industry that does it best to hide what it does because it knows most people will not like it.

For the past few days, a trial unfolding in a sleepy Toronto suburb has drawn international attention. It’s not the trial of a celebrity, or a high-profile criminal like a serial killer: it’s a mischief trial, for a woman who gave some pigs a drink of water.

Anita Krajnc, a 49-year-old animal rights activist, was arrested last summer for dribbling some water into the mouth of a pig inside a transport truck on its way to slaughter. Krajnc now faces up to $5,000 in fines or even jail time for this mischief charge, which she caught on tape after the driver confronted her:

Krajnc is a founding member of Toronto Pig Save, an animal rights group that holds weekly “vigils” on the side of the road for pigs on their way to slaughter. It isn’t the first time they’ve given pigs water through the slats of transportation trucks, but on this occasion the driver of the truck, Jeffrey Veldjesgraaf, grew alarmed. He tried to stop Krajnc, then phoned his boss, hog farmer Eric Van Boekel, who called the police.

At court this week, Van Boekel testified that he was worried the water could have had contaminants that would have made the 190 pigs—worth about $45,000—sick or unfit for slaughter. He also said he was concerned for activists’ safety.“One of my biggest fears—and it’s not if it’s going to happen, it’s when it’s going to happen—is one of the protesters has their arm in the slat, and the driver pulls away, they’ll get [pulled] under the truck,” Van Boekel testified.

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